The present invention relates to a removable door handle, and more particularly to a secure attachment of a removable door handle to a sleeve that drives the mechanism to open the door.
Door handles, such as levers and knobs, are typically removably mounted to a lock mechanism contained within the door to meet assembly and manufacturing requirements. One current method for mounting a door handle is with a lever catch. Although effective, the lever catch may provide a somewhat sloppy feeling between the door handle and lock mechanism.
Another method of securing a handle to a lock mechanism includes the use of a setscrew. Disadvantageously, locating the setscrew on the lever may provide assembly and manufacturing difficulties. Such difficulties include cutting the threads on a handle that has already been finished or cutting the threads on the handle then finishing the handles such that the finishing may block the threaded opening. Another difficulty is that the setscrews, when mounted through the lever, can be fully backed out during installation and become lost.
Mounting the setscrew through the outer diameter of the handle presents a security concern because the setscrew is accessible on an exterior keyed handle, an unauthorized person can completely remove the setscrew from the exterior, remove the handle, disable the lock mechanism, and gain access through the door.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a secure removable door handle which may be used on interior and exterior doors, which minimizes play between the door handle and lock mechanism.